Jan. 15, 2026, 10:45 a.m. CT<\/p>\n
The Iowa<\/a> football program has had a ton of success putting players into the NFL during the Kirk Ferentz era.<\/p>\n From tight ends to offensive linemen to safeties and even punters, former Hawkeyes<\/a> are littered throughout the NFL, on nearly every roster. There’s one position over the Ferentz era that Iowa<\/a> has struggled to put into the league: wide receivers. A big part of that is Iowa’s scheme, which has usually favored a heavy dose of the running game and tight ends. That hasn’t stopped some receivers from putting up big numbers and garnering a lot of interest from the NFL.<\/p>\n Of the few wide receivers who go from Iowa City to the NFL, even fewer manage to stick around for multiple seasons. That’s what makes Wednesday’s news even sweeter for Hawkeye fans. Former Hawk Ihmir Smith-Marsette agreed to a one-year futures contract with the Arizona Cardinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Smith-Marsette was a fifth-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings<\/a> in the 2021 NFL Draft after a great four-year career in Iowa City. He caught 110 passes for 1,615 yards and 14 touchdowns, while also adding 274 rushing yards and four rushing scores. Smith-Marsette also made his name known as an excellent kick returner, with 1,520 career kick return yards at Iowa, to go along with a pair of return touchdowns.<\/p>\n That versatility led to the Vikings taking a chance on him, and he found his way onto the field as a rookie to make a few plays. He had five catches for 116 yards and two touchdowns in 2021. After his rookie season, Smith-Marsette was waived, clearing the way for him to sign with the Chicago Bears<\/a>. With the Bears in 2022, he had just one catch for 15 yards. He was waived mid-season and was signed to the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>‘ practice squad. He was elevated to the active roster for a game, so he ended up with a Super Bowl ring that season.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n In August of 2023, he was traded to the Carolina Panthers<\/a>, where he finally got involved with the return game. After totaling just five returns across his first two seasons, Smith-Marsette had 37 punt returns for Carolina in 2023, scoring a touchdown in the process. He was waived by the Panthers in August of 2024 and signed with the New York Giants<\/a>. He had 40 total returns in New York, with the highlight being a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.<\/p>\n And after not seeing any action in 2025, Smith-Marsette has landed a new opportunity in Arizona. Maybe this will be the chance for the former Hawk, who’s still just 26, to officially break out.<\/p>\n Contact\/Follow us\u00a0@HawkeyesWire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions.\u00a0Follow Zach on X:\u00a0@zach_hiney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 15, 2026, 10:45 a.m. CT The Iowa football program has had a ton of success putting players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[95878,375,390,2604,1327,7,6,99533,96358,95882,95890,96219,95930,96152,96027,96831,98724,97404,97401,99534,95896,96758,95906,96071,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-681300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-cardinals","tag-accessfree","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-arizonacardinals","tag-cardinals","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportscollegehawkeyesfootball","tag-sstsnfootball","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagarizona-cardinals","tag-tagbig-10-hub","tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","tag-tagcollege-football","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagfootball","tag-tagihmir-smith-marsette","tag-tagiowa-hawkeyes","tag-tagiowa-hawkeyes-football","tag-tagkirk-ferentz","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagncaa-big-ten-conference","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsmg-timely","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}